Lauren Berger, Nederland.   Why Investing in Energy Efficiency is Like Eating Your Vegetables Before Dessert.

Nederland is embarking on an ambitious journey towards energy leadership with a community-wide goal of consuming 100% electricity from renewable sources by 2025. In order to get there, we all have to make sure we eat our energy vegetables - and make our town, homes, and businesses as efficient as possible - first.

How is energy efficiency like eating your vegetables? Because it is the practical, responsible, and necessary prelude to investments in exciting renewable energy generation like solar panels or micro-hydro. Investing in energy efficiency upgrades won’t be something that is immediately obvious to guests to your home or customers at your business, but efficiency upgrades will reveal its worth over time as the improvements you make lower your electricity bill, improve the comfort of your home or business, and reduce the amount of energy you normally consume.

As we all work together to improve the efficiency of Nederland, this will also help us achieve our goal of 100% renewable electricity consumption. Think of it like this: by reducing the overall amount of energy we consume right off the bat, we’re reducing the amount of new renewable energy that we have to consume. In other words, we’re moving the finish line closer.

What is the Town of Nederland doing to increase its energy efficiency?

Recognizing that we can lower costs of operating our buildings through energy efficiency improvements, the Town of Nederland has taken several steps towards decreasing our energy consumption in municipal facilities. The Community Center is beginning a project to replace all incandescent light bulbs within the building with LED light bulbs, saving money and electricity. Town street lights will be upgraded to LEDs in the coming months, and a new efficient boiler was installed in the Visitor Center. Finally, the State of Colorado Energy Office just completed a study of municipal facilities to identify further opportunities for efficiency improvements.

What can my business do?

A great first step is to reach out to Partners for a Clean Environment (PACE), a program of the Boulder County Sustainability Office. PACE’s Business Sustainability Advisors will - for absolutely free - come to your business and offer technical assistance on easy ways to improve your efficiency. Along with free benefits - lightbulbs, low-flow faucet heads, bike racks, and recycling bins - PACE can also help businesses access rebates and grant money for larger-ticket efficiency projects including lighting, cooling and heating, motor and drive, and restaurant equipment efficiency.

Learn more about PACE here: http://pacepartners.com/.

What can I do at home?

EnergySmart is a Boulder County Sustainability Office program that has to date helped over 17,000 homes become more efficient and reduce their electric bills, increase atmospheric comfort, and lower energy consumption. EnergySmart can connect you with an advisor who will provide technical assistance, offer no or low-cost solutions, help you navigate available rebates, and connect you with certified contractors for larger projects. The initial advisor assessment is free; why not see what options are available for your home?

Learn more about EnergySmart here: http://www.energysmartyes.com/

Interested? Want to discuss further?

Email us at sab@nederlandco.org, or take the community survey here: https://bit.ly/2k9Ksu8.

[Written by Lauren Berger, Matt Allegretto, Tessie Mernick (all reachable at NedEnergyTransition@colorado.edu) and Nederland’s Sustainability Advisory Board.]